Kroger Screws 200 Workers Out of Spite
The grocery giant shuttered two stores rather than follow a law requiring a $4 raise during the pandemic.
FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty Images
On Thursday,
The
Washington Postreported that Kroger, the nation’s largest grocery chain, has elected to close two stores in Long Beach, California, after the local city council passed an ordinance requiring a temporary $4 pandemic raise for grocery workers. Kroger, which doubled its profits in 2019, targeted these stores to send a message that the company will not be coerced into paying its workers a fair wage during the pandemic or ever. It’s a threat. It also might work.
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At long last, the United States has a president who appears to understand the threats posed by Covid-19. The incoming administration also has the popular mandate and legislative power to address the crisis. As Americans, we are relieved and, for the first time in many months, cautiously optimistic.
But as epidemiologists, we are concerned that President Joe Biden’s current pandemic strategy will not be enough to avert further disaster. To prevent unnecessary deaths and give the vaccine a chance to succeed, Biden must encourage states to enact four- to six-week shutdowns by offering generous economic support to people and businesses.
By my calculations, I have spent almost three-quarters of my 67 years around politicians. I’ve observed their behavior, their successes, and their failures fairly closely. Yet I still wonder if I’ll ever completely understand them. Let me explain.
American voters may have once loved their elected officials in Washington, but that now seems ages ago. In recent years these fickle voters seem to have lost all patience and are keeping politicians on a very short leash.
Let’s look at midterm elections for starters. They’re almost always referenda on the sitting president. In the post–World War II era, the party holding the White House has averaged losses of three Senate and 22 House seats. More relevant to next year, the average in the midterms of a president’s first is just one Senate and 23 House seats lost (it is the midterms in presidents’ second terms that are often bloodbaths in the Senate, the class of senators last up when that president was first elected). Given t
How the Supreme Court Protects Robinhood
Decades of bad Court rulings have enabled corporations to use forced arbitration clauses to protect themselves. But Congress could easily fix this.
Last week, the stock market had its
worst week since October, but if you had GameStop stock, you were feeling pretty good. It
grew 400 percent, fueled by the Reddit page
r/WallStreetBets, where members bought stocks of companies that appeared on the way down, inflating their prices and putting the hedge fund managers who had shorted the stock in a bad position.
Robinhood stopped the trading on some of these stocks last week while it raised enough capital to cover certain clearing requirements associated with the trades. But users saw the move as an effort to curb the gains made in stocks like GameStop and AMC, allowing hedge funds a way out of their positions. There were even allegations that Robinhood was
values. It is separate from the newsroom.
Feb. 1, 2021
Credit.Illustration by The New York Times; photograph by Lars Hagberg/Agence France-Presse Getty Images
As with so much else that President Biden has done during his first days in office, a simple act of courtesy a phone call to Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau, and a promise to get together soon is in itself viewed as a major and welcome break with the Trump era. But being friends again, Canadians have been quickly reminded, does not cure all ills.
Improving relations with Canada was not a heavy lift. Former President Donald Trump’s treatment of America’s northern neighbor and closest ally stood out even in the general disdain the administration displayed toward international allies. In an infamous clash around the 2018 Group of 7 meeting in Canada, Mr. Trump slapped tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum in the name of national security and then assailed Mr. Trudeau as “very dishonest & weak” for comp